President Obama to Throw First Pitch at Nats Home Opener

I'm reposting this from DCist -- the Nats Triple Play crew will be out.

I'm just starting to care again about baseball.

-- Dave.

President Obama to Throw First Pitch at Nats Home Opener

Photo by laura padgett

If you managed to score tickets to opening day at Nationals Park, you're in luck: President Barack Obama will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Washington Nationals home opener on Monday, April 5.

The pitch, scheduled for 1:05 p.m., will mark the first time President Obama has accepted such an invitation from the Nationals. Obama declined to throw the first pitch last year, citing his busy schedule, and the team instead had members of all five branches of the U.S. military do the honors.

In addition to being Obama's first appearance at Nationals Park, the event will mark the 100th anniversary of the first time a U.S. President threw an opening day pitch, and the 48th time a President has done so in Washington. William Howard Taft started the tradition on April 14, 1910, in a game that pitted the Washington Senators against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Nationals will face the defending National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies on April 5, which will feature John Lannan facing off against Phillies superstar pitcher Roy Halladay.

Individual tickets are no longer available to the game, but the club plans to offer 400 seats in sections 401 and 402 for only $5 starting at 10 a.m. on game day at the Nationals Park main box office. Given the president's planned appearance, we expect those tickets to sell out in minutes.

There will be enhanced security at the game thanks to the secret service, so the Nationals are encouraging fans to arrive an hour to two hours earlier than normal. Gates will open at 10 a.m., and attendees should plan on waiting in line to pass through security.

(Via DCist.)

Rizzo Drinks in the Afternoon

And starts to sober up around 7. That's my kind of GM.

Just keep him away from the segway.

Mike Rizzo's Chemistry Experiment

Dammit all, I was doing so well ignoring Spring Training. The scores don't mean anything because half the players won't see a major league roster this season. The stats don't mean anything because the players are working on things rather than trying to hit the ball, score runs or get batters out. Aside from overwrought "Ian Desmond for Opening Day shortstop" movement, (which conveniently ignores the whole "spring training stats are meaningless" thing) there hasn't really been any reason to follow the Nats too closely.

Until today, when out of the clear blue sky the Nats released presumptive Opening Day right fielder Elijah Dukes with a terse statement. Not traded, not optioned to minor league camp... released. Here's a list of guys who have been released by the Nationals this spring: Shawn Estes, Ron Villone, Eddie Guardado, Logan Kensing, Elijah Dukes. One of these things is not like the others, and it ain't Kensing.

When the Nats released Everyday Eddie Guardado after over-hyping his minor league contract and NRI earlier in the offseason, there was a minor groundswell of chatter around the Natmosphere. How could Mike Rizzo cut loose a guy who was previously touted as a mentor, clubhouse guru and stabilizing force after two bad innings? Though I resisted the urge to publish it at the time, (see above re: ignoring Spring Training) here's my quick hitter on the Guardado kerfluffle:

Eddie Guardado's release proves that Mike Rizzo is the second worst General Manager in Washington Nationals history. When Jim Bowden went dumpster-diving for a washed up reliever on a minor league contract with a spring training invite, he stuck with him for at least a dozen early season bullpen appearances. Mike Rizzo knows nothing about that kind of commitment to a bit.

The popular reaction to Guardado was way overblown, but the reaction to Dukes' release may be, if anything, too understated. Rob Neyer has a thoughtful post on why this probably isn't nearly so bad as it looks, and I don't disagree with his analysis. Dukes did seem to be regressing, was chronically bothered by nagging lower body injuries and while still young-ish he wasn't really a prospect anymore.

Still, to completely jettison a 25 year-old one year removed from a great season while he still has a minor league option remaining is bizarre and worthy of additional investigation. While steadfastly insisting that this was a pure baseball decision, Rizzo cited "clubhouse matters" and "chemistry" issues surrounding Elijah. OF Justin Maxwell likewise alluded to Dukes-related
"distractions."

If "toolsy" was watchword of Jim Bowden's tenure as GM, "chemistry" has been Rizzo's guiding star. From ripping Stephen Shell's aura to selling low on mercurial outfielder Lastings Milledge Rizzo seems to have an exceptionally low tolerance for anyone who disrupts his cherished clubhouse vibe. Fans who disparaged Bowden's penchant for valuing potential and flash over performance and results may find that Rizzo's yen for solid, steady reliability isn't the key to a championship either.

You know who has good chemistry? Winning teams. You know who has bad chemistry? Losing teams. If the Nats fought, bitched and backstabbed their way to a Wild Card berth, that'd be fine by me. On the other hand, a united, cohesive group of guys pulling together professionally for a 70 win season? Pass. Rizzo says this is a baseball decision, which means that he thinks starting Mike Morse, Justin Maxwell or Roger Bernadina in rightfield will make the Nats a better baseball team than they were with Dukes. I'm not sure I believe him.

Postscript: If this move has anything to do with getting Ian Desmond regular at-bats as a rightfielder then Rizzo, Riggleman and Kasten should join Dukes on the unemployment line tomorrow. If Desmond is one of the 25 best players on the team the Nats should make a place for him on the infield. If they need to release or bench somebody to make that happen, well, that's a baseball move. Otherwise Mike Rizzo is a really bad liar.

Doing Arbitration Right

Maybe the Nats are a little arb happy. Maybe the Lerners are cheap. Maybe Stan Kasten's stubborn, or maybe Mike Rizzo has an ego the size of Livan Hernandez. I don't know... and neither do you. Here's what I know: just because you decide to take a player to arbitration doesn't mean you have to trash him. From Nationals Journal:

According to Bruney, Washington argued for the lesser of those salaries by emphasizing the relief pitcher's recent injury history.

It's easy to see how disagreements about a pitcher's talent and results can get heated and leave hard feelings. It's harder to see how a player can get very upset about the observation that he just hasn't been 100% for the last few years.

Rizzo: You've been banged up.
Bruney: Have not.
Rizzo: Have too.
Bruney: It's just a flesh wound.

In any case, Bruney said he trusted the market to tell him what he's worth, and the market has spoken.

The Unthinkable

Felipe Lopez is still out there. The best free agent second baseman available is still looking for work. The guy who put up a .310/.383!/.427 line in Arizona and Milwaukee last year, with better defense than Orlando Hudson, isn't going to Spring Training without buying a ticket. He's just axed Scott Boras too, probably in reaction to being unemployed longer than Adam Everett, Kelly Johnson, Alex Gonzalez, Melvin Mora and Adam Kennedy.

I don't like Felipe Lopez. There's no doubt in my mind that he quit on the Nationals in 2007-08. He dogged it, phoned it in, went through the motions, whatever you want to call it. I doubt you'll find a single Nats fan willing to come to FLop's defense. He was playing out of position, on a terrible team, and all evidence suggests that he was a bad seed, on the field and off. But that was then, and baseball makes strange bedfellows.

Mike Rizzo's stated goal for the offseason was to improve the infield defense. Maybe he did that with the Adam Kennedy signing. Personally, I'm not convinced that a 34 year-old 2B coming off his first good offensive season since 2005, (and his worst defensive season ever) is the answer to the Nats infield woes. If Kennedy were bumped to the bench, he'd be an upgrade over Alberto Gonzalez or Eric Bruntlett, and at $1.25M he'd still be making less than Ronnie Belliard was paid to do the same job last season.

Of course, all this is idle blogger chatter. The Nats have expressed no interest in Lopez, and he's certainly given no sign that he's inclined to come back. However, this is a very different team since Felipe left in 2008. New GM, new manager and a boatload of new players. And Spring Training is just around the corner.

Maybe the reason he's still looking for work is that he really is a clubhouse cancer even when he's playing well for a contender. If that's the case then the Nats are justified in staying well away. But if Rizzo is serious about constantly looking for was to improve the club, this is one stone he really shouldn't leave unturned.

Everybody Wang Chung Tonight*

Now this is dumpster-diving we can believe in. Per the Boston Globe's Pete Abraham, (via MLBTradeRumors) SP Chien-Ming Wang is on the verge of agreeing to a contract with the Nats. If this is what Mike Rizzo did with the money he saved on Adam Kennedy, that's alright by me.

Wang comes with an host of question marks, but so does everyone else available at this point. He's coming off shoulder surgery, so there's no way he's ready to start the season (his agent says mid-May, which makes me think maybe June 1st.) Wang's only pitched 137 innings in the last two years, and his numbers last season were atrocious, so we probably aren't getting the 2006 Cy Young runner-up, two-time 19 game winner. Even what he does well could be a problem.

Wang's a groundball pitcher. It may even be fair to say that he's the groundball pitcher. To be successful he needs a good infield defense behind him. The Nats have never had a good infield defense, particularly up the middle. Improving that defense was one of Rizzo's stated goals for the offseason, but the projected 2010 Dunn-Kennedy-Guzman-Zimmerman infield is still a huge defensive question mark.

Nevertheless, it's a great low-risk pick-up for the Nats, a welcome respite from the Bowden impersonator that signed Miguel Batista (Basil's man-crush notwithstanding) and Shawn Estes. It's also a good sign that Rizzo isn't resigned to a 2010 rotation of Marquis-Lannan and a 3-game forfeit. Pitchers and catchers report in just over a week, so everybody have fun tonight!

*Yes, I know how it's pronounced, but if Wang is Wong I don't want to be right.

Send a Blogger to Camp

I've been remiss in failing to note the arrival of a distinguished new member of the Natmosphere. Mark Zuckerman is a familiar name to long-suffering Nats fans, as he's been covering the team for that other Washington daily paper for nigh unto five seasons. Of course, that other paper has decided to reinvent itself as a conservative Politico (redundant?) so Mark finds himself adrift among the basement dwellers.

In other words, Mark Z's got a brand new bag. A link to his NATS INSIDER blog (ohh... original) is off to the right. Of course, as a newly-minted freelancer Mark's got to pay his own freight, which is where we come in. In the interest of having someone other than Phil Wood, Rocket Bill Ladson and the Post's newest intern/mailroom clerk/Nats beat scribe reporting from Viera, Zuckerman is soliciting contributions to fund his vaca... coverage of Spring Training. This is what Bob Levey should have been doing all these years.

There's no question that this is a worthy cause. Not Haiti-worthy, certainly, but for a fan of the Nationals and intelligent baseball coverage, important. So give a few bucks in order that somebody with a BBWAA card can ask Riggleman why in God's name he wants to use Ian Desmond as a utility infielder. Click here to contribute.

Now, an editorial aside. Sending Mark Zuckerman to Viera is all fine and good. FJB can tell you why in breath-taking detail. Access is good. But even better is a willingness to ask the questions fans actually want answered without fear of losing that access. Maybe Mark the blogger will find himself more free to do that than Mark the Times reporter. I don't know. What I do know is that given the choice I'd rather raise money to send Chris Needham, Steven Biel and Brian Oliver to Space Coast Stadium. Stupid, pesky real jobs get in the way of all my best ideas.